Importantly, children often teach us lessons about realistic expectations and plans. For example, how many times have we promised ourselves on January 1... well, if not to start a new life, then to drastically change our lifestyle, habits, etc., to play sports, to devote more time to our interests or get rid of numerous harmful habits? And how often did these promises come true?
No, there are people with an iron willpower who one hundred percent fulfill all the dreams and ideas formed on New Year's Eve. Kudos for them, but sometimes a child who dreams of, let's say, two desserts for breakfast or a new bicycle unconsciously teaches any adult about rational goal setting.
“The day when a new year begins, and the old one, accordingly, gets 'reset' and becomes a thing of the past - a tempting moment to start life from scratch or just make some kind of promise to yourself, or maybe even make a whole list of goals,” says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. “However, achieving these goals is not always successful.”
“I’ve seen statistics that say that about three-quarters of people who set a New Year’s goal give up after the very first failure, and two-thirds complete no more than one resolution on the list. This is usually the easiest one, a truly achievable goal. Sort of a psychological trick aimed at ourselves..."
“That’s why realistic goals and the ability to not give up after failures on the way to achieving them are so important. In the end, the process of achieving a goal is no less important than the result. And, of course, you always need to ask the question - who needs this goal, you or other people," Irina summarizes.
According to one version, the tradition of making New Year's resolutions was started by Julius Caesar, who had a special relationship with the holiday of the beginning of the year. At least, it was Caesar who, reforming the Roman calendar, moved the beginning of the year from March 1st to January 1st.
By the way, this was directly related to these resolutions - after all, the witness of such oaths for the Romans was the two-faced god Janus, who looked into the past with one face and into the future with the other, thereby assessing the progress achieved by any person.
Now let's think about who the very month of January was named after? That's right, in honor of Janus! So yes, the very concept of celebrating the New Year in the form in which it is familiar to us today is directly related to our goals and resolutions. Even with unfulfilled ones...
However, even if you don’t set your own goals for the New Year, or don’t monitor their implementation, you may be interested in reading these tweets from parents and just adults actively interacting with children. And who knows, maybe you will add your own stories to this treasury of kids' wisdom and wit? Then you're welcome to the comments section too!
